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N/B : Yoy!! Guys Don't forget to check my other works : [ Shadow Monarch Ć Harry Potter].
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The further Akai walked, the darker it became, the oppressive gloom swallowing the eerie green light of the chamber behind him until it was nothing but a memory. The air grew heavy, thick enough to taste, a vile cocktail of rotting flesh, old blood, and cold, rusted iron. Every breath was a labor, a conscious effort to inhale without gagging, each lungful feeling like a slow, deliberate sip of poison. The walls, no longer merely stone, seemed alive and malevolent, weeping with damp, slimy moss and oozing a dark, viscous fluid from countless cracks. They were carved, not with tools, but with the frantic, desperate claw marks of mad hands that had scraped and scratched for a freedom they would never find. Shadows stretched and twisted unnaturally across the narrow corridor, long and grasping, swaying as though they were living entities mocking his every cautious step. The silence was a physical presence, a weight that pressed down on his skull, a suffocating terror far worse than any scream. It was a silence that whispered promises of eternal confinement, a cold, certain truth: you will never leave.
Then, suddenlyā
A blast of sound erupted from deeper in the maze,shattering the oppressive quiet like glass.
"ALERT! ALERT! OUTSIDER INTRUSION!"
The metallic, panicked voice of a Den Den Mushi screeched through the halls, followed by the thunderous echo of dozens of armored feet pounding against the stone. The very floor beneath him seemed to vibrate with the organized chaos. Guardians were scrambling, their barked orders overlapping into a cacophony of fear and urgency. Somewhere close, heavy chains clashed against metal, gates of reinforced iron slammed shut with finality, and deep, blaring alarms wailed, their sound waves vibrating in his teeth. Akai froze, pressing himself into a shallow alcove at a corner, watching as the meticulously maintained order of Impel Down fractured and chaos spread through its veins like wildfire.
"What theā¦ holy fuck!!!" His eyes widened, not in fear, but in sheer, stunned disbelief as he pieced together the scene from the fragmented shouts and panicked cries echoing down the stone throat of the corridor.
From the shouts, he assembled the impossible narrative: someoneāa single, monstrously powerful someoneāhad broken into Level 1, then Level 2, tearing open the fortified cells as if they were made of paper, unleashing a tide of the world's most vicious criminals. Pandemonium was spreading upwards, a reverse avalanche of violence. Voices screamed in equal parts terror and triumph, iron clanged against iron, and the distinct, acrid smell of sparked fire began to permeate the heavy air, cutting through the stench of decay.
Akai dragged a hand down his face, groaning in exasperated realization.
"ā¦Don't tell me what that hot woman said was true.She really brought someone hereā¦ and he's going completely crazy."
But then, as he slunk back into the deeper shadows, a wicked, opportunistic thought slithered into his mind, cold and calculating.
"Waitā¦" His lips curved into a slow, predatory grin that didn't touch his eyes.
"If I release prisoners onthis levelā¦ maybe I'll get someone dumb enough to show me the way out. Or strong enough to carve a path. And hell, watching these caged monsters rip these self-righteous guards apart might be fun. Beats being slowly strangled by this dead atmosphere, right?"
He paused, his eyes narrowing with that familiar, dangerous glint of calculated madness. The gears turned swiftly.
"And perhaps that idiot Hannyabal from earlier will wake up and drag me into another mess.His pride won't let that slide. So, the safest way? Create bigger problems before they even think to look for me. Heheā¦ let's keep them all very, very occupied."
Decision made, Akai reached into the folds of his stolen guardian robes. His fingers closed around the cold, heavy iron ring of keys he had looted from an unconscious guard earlier. The metal clinked softly in his palm, each key reflecting the faint, sickly light like a promise of violence, as though even the inanimate objects were thirsty for blood and chaos. He began to walk purposefully down the long corridor of locked cells, a gallery of horrors. Each door housed shadows that growled with bestial fury, hissed with serpentine malice, or whispered chilling, fragmented madness into the dank air.
One by one, with the casual indifference of a man sowing seeds, he tossed keys into the cells. He didn't look inside; he didn't need to.
Clinkā¦ clinkā¦ clinkā¦
Each sound was a tiny, metallic spark dropped into a barrel of long-dried gunpowder. A wicked, unrestrained smile stretched across his face as the sounds from within changedāthe frantic scraping of chains, low, guttural growls of anticipation, the slow, deliberate drag of feet across filthy stone. He moved with efficient speed, a harbinger feeding the growing beast of chaos, until the last key slipped from his hand into the final cell on the ring.
He stopped, stretching his arms out wide as though conducting a deranged orchestra awaiting his cue.
"Well,well. Not too many keys, huh? Why the hell did that fucker only have these few?" He tilted his head, pretending to pout in mock disappointment before his smirk returned, sharper and more sinister.
"Anywayā¦let's just wait. Heh."
He leaned back against the cold, damp wall, folding his arms, a spectator at his own grand performance. He listened, attuned to the symphony of impending anarchy: the scratching of nails on metal, the heavy, rhythmic banging against reinforced doors, the muffled, insane laughter of beasts who sensed their freedom was moments away.
Then, almost to himself, he chuckled, a low, dark sound,
"Imagine if I had all the keys.I might've ended up right at the exit. Clean. Simple. But heyāwhere's the fun in that? Boring as hell. No thrill, no excitement, no beautiful, beautiful chaos. This wayā¦ it gets interesting."
And thenāit happened.
The first door creaked open. The sound was low, heavy, and blood-freezing, a noise that spoke of weight and resistance finally overcome. One cell after another began to follow, groaning metal echoing like a funeral march for order and control.
From the impenetrable darkness within, shapes emerged.
Eyes, wide and wild, glowed with a feral light in the dim corridor. Arms, thickly corded with twisted muscle and covered in a tapestry of old scars and fresh wounds, flexed for the first time in years, decades. Some prisoners staggered out like reanimated corpses, movements jerky and uncoordinated. Others prowled into the hallway like apex predators finally unleashed, their lips curling back from broken teeth into feral, hungry grins. The air itself thickened, becoming saturated with a palpable, collective bloodlust.
Chains fell from wrists and ankles, clattering to the stone floor like a rain of bones, and the prison corridor was suddenly, terrifyingly alive with monsters wearing human skins.
Akai's smirk widened, a reflexive response to the sheer scale of what he had unleashed, though deep down, a primal coil of tension tightened in his stomach.
"ā¦Oh,shit."
The ground trembled under the collective weight of their steps. They howled, they screamed, they roaredāa terrifying, chaotic orchestra of liberation and violence that shook the very foundations of the level. In the distance, the shouts of the guardians turned from panic to sheer terror as the wave of freed prisoners stormed the halls, a tsunami of pent-up rage.
And just as Akai thought he'd sit back and enjoy the magnificent, destructive chaos he had orchestratedā
A sharp, intrusive ping echoed directly in his mind, cold and artificial.
A system notification, glowing with an ethereal blue light, appeared before his eyes, superimposing itself over the horrific reality:
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[New Quest: Terminate Threats]
Objective: Eliminate 2 Escaping Prisoners from Level 6.
Reward: +450 EXP | 200 System Coins | Passive Skill Upgrade Token (Tier I).
Bonus: Level Advancement to Level 5 if mission is completed within the hour.
Warning: Failure to comply will result in:
Immediate -2 Levels Penalty.
Forced Pain Simulation (72 hours).
50% Coin Deduction.
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Akai's smirk dropped instantly. His jaw went slack with pure, unadulterated incredulity.
"ā¦Hell?!What? I just freed them! Don't kill the joy!"
But the system screen glowed on, merciless and immutable, its words etched into his vision like a divineāor damnedāsentence.
He ran a hand down his face, feeling the rough stubble on his jaw, muttering under his breath as the roaring of the freed prisoners grew louder, closer,
"Unbelievable.I let the monsters out of their cage and now I gotta clean up the mess? What the hell are you, a prison janitor system?"
The shadows of the advancing prisoners stretched toward him, long and distorted. Akai clenched his fists, his teeth bared in a grimace of frustration and rising battle-lust.
"Fine, fineā¦ let's play your little game."
His grin returned, sharp and dangerous and utterly devoid of humor.
"ā¦But I swear,this better be worth it."
And as the ground shook under the weight of the chaos he had created, the system's timer began its inexorable countdown in the corner of his vision.
[ End of Chapter 9.]
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